The First International and After

The crucial texts of Marx's later years notably The Civil War in France and Critique of the Gotha Programme count among his most important work. These articles include a searching analysis of the tragic but inspiring failure of the Paris Commune, as well as essays on German unification, the Irish question, the Polish national movement and the possibility of revolution in Russia. The founding documents of the First international and polemical pieces attacking the disciples of Proudhon and Bakunin and the advocates of reformism, by contrast, reveal a tactical mastery that has influenced revolutionary movements ever since. In a new introduction David Harvey sheds light on the evolution of Marx's notions of democracy and politics.